Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner’s new budget chief gave lawmakers an update on the state’s finances Wednesday, saying the income tax hike enacted over the governor’s veto is bringing in more money than expected but the books are still awash in red ink.

Budget director Hans Zigmund’s briefing before a Senate committee came as Rauner is set to unveil his annual budget proposal next week. The administration has promised it will be balanced, even though Democrats have assailed all of the governor’s spending plans as out-of-whack.

Democrats grilled members of Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner’s cabinet on Wednesday over their alleged secrecy surrounding the series of fatal Legionnaires’ disease outbreaks at a state-run veterans’ home that have dogged the governor’s re-election campaign.

A WBEZ investigation into 13 Legionnaires’-related deaths at the Illinois Veterans Home in downstate Quincy has triggered legislation and hearings about how Rauner’s administration responded to one of the worst public health crises of his three-year tenure.

The Rauner administration said Wednesday that lawmakers need to approve a supplemental spending bill to ensure the Department of Corrections can get through the rest of the fiscal year.

Budget director Hans Zigmund said that in total the administration wants lawmakers to approve a $1.1 billion supplemental spending bill to cover “unappropriated liabilities” from the previous fiscal year. The state did not have a budget in place for the 2017 fiscal year but kept spending money through a variety of court orders, consent decrees and automatic spending.

An estimated 140,000 state employees have their pensions invested through the Illinois State Board of Investment (ISBI). The pension fund is in charge of how some $22 billion are invested.

ISBI chairman, Marc Levine, has pushed through an overhaul of the fund’s investment strategy. He says $75 million a year is being saved by getting the board—one of the state’s biggest pension plans—out of hedge funds.

In a special meeting Wednesday, federal housing officials told residents living in two public housing developments in Thebes that the complexes they call home are being put up for sale, and that residents will have to move.

“What you’re going to hear tonight is going to be life-changing somewhat. So I want to prepare you for what you’re about to hear. But don’t be overwhelmed, because that’s why we’re all here. And I’m not saying that lightly,” Towanda Macon, a HUD administrator who has been overseeing the Alexander County Housing Authority for nearly two years, said at the top of the meeting.

The reorganization plan proposed by Southern Illinois University Carbondale Chancellor Carlo Montemagno was once again the focus of public comments at Wednesday’s working session of the SIU Board of Trustees in Edwardsville.

According to WSIU, Faculty Senate President Kathleen Chwalisz spoke in favor of the plan and criticized opposition tactics.